“Now...” He shook his head, his dark shiny hair sliding across his crown. “Now we must prepare for the fight of our lives. We’ll need all the help we can get to protect the gate and push the forces of the underworld back where they belong.”
My dad sounded like he was ready to push every single demon back into the dark pit they came from with his own bare hands, wheelchair be damned.
As if on cue, the first of Brock’s wolves started to arrive. Brock grabbed the first one he saw and pressed his selkie skin into the man’s arms. Following his lead, I took mine off too and added it to the wolf’s load.
“Take another wolf with you and go to the selkie cave in Washington,” Brock ordered. “Return these to the selkie leader with my thanks. And tell her that the gate to the underworld is open, but we’ll do everything we can—”
I stepped forward. “Tell her I’m going to close it.”
The wolf and Brock both looked at me. I tipped my chin high.
Brock nodded. “Tell her Evie is going to close it, and we will report back to her soon with an update.”
If I couldn’t believe in myself, then who could? It was nice to know that Brock was on my side too.
The wolf’s eyes grew large as saucers, but he nodded quickly, turned on his heel, and ran off, grabbing one of the wolves running by him. The two of them sprinted back toward the house and the cars.
Phew. At least we didn’t have to worry about the selkies coming after us for not returning their skins right away.
Now all we had to worry about was the entirety of the underworld unleashing its evil on the world. And I was the only one alive who could stop this.
What. The. Fuck?
I swallowed loudly, bending to wipe the Akuma gunk from my blade before sheathing it. “I guess I’d better get to shifting. I need to have nine tails before I can close this gate.”
“And we don’t have a second to waste,” my dad said, wheeling forward as if looking for a way to help.
Brock stepped forward and held out his hand. “You just shifted yesterday. Two shifts so close together could hurt the baby.”
Sabine stepped out of nowhere. “He’s right.”
Fuck. I loved being pregnant, but it felt like a handicap sometimes. This was one of those times.
At some point I would need to let go of all this fear and just trust my intuition. My gut said that neither my body nor my magic would hurt the baby.
“The baby won’t be hurt. You’re all going to have to trust me on that,” I told them, and started to undress.
“Evie!” Brock reached out a hand to stop me.
My violet eyes flicked up to meet his and suddenly we were locked in an epic staredown.
“Do you trust me?” I asked.
I could see the moment the confliction crossed my lover’s face.
“We’ve got company!” Haru cried out from where he stood near the gate. I had no idea when he’d arrived. Molly must be here too.
Brock finally nodded and released my arm.
A flash of light had me spinning toward Tianna. Cass held up his hands and wiggled them, now free of the cuffs.
“You shift, Ev,” Cass said, making his way toward me, Tianna right next to him. “We’ll prepare to kick some major ass.”
“Kick some major ass? I’m in,” Molly said, and I turned to see her smiling beneath her purple head of hair as she appeared between a bunch of wolves, Haru and Reo at her side. The Japanese warriors weren’t smiling.
“What’s that sound?” Haru and Reo asked at the same time, but before any of us could answer, a deafening roar wafted up from the underworld and through the gate.
I knew exactly what the sound was. The demon army was rallying to march on Earth … and kill us all.
